Blogging for and about Youth Work and Young People

Posts tagged ‘Integrated Youth Support and Development Service’

I was at a meeting of theSouth East Youth Partnership (SEYP)International Committee up at theBritish Council Offices in London on Monday. The Committee comprises representatives from local authorities and the voluntary sector from across the South East Region. Our remit is to promote and support International Youth Work, with a particular focus on the youth in action programme funded through the European Commission.

As the committee started to plan ahead and look at International youth work strategically across the region it became obvious that we were trying to do this against a background of disquiet and uncertainty. With reductions in services happening across the South East most people were unsure whether they were going to actually be in post in October (the date we were planning a promotional and getting started event). Some services are in the middle of restructuring, others were going through their second or third round and yet others had not yet started.

We had a long discussion to decide what sort of an event we should put on, whether we should hold one at all and who to aim it at. In discussion it was clear that there was definitely no one shape fits all in terms of services. In West Sussex we are in the midst of restructuring to form an Integrated Youth Support and Development Service, incorporating the Youth Offending Service, the Youth Service and Connexions although who will actually deliver the services is still to be decided. In other areas there is no youth service with youth workers being in integrated teams managed through Children Services Managers.

It was felt that International Youth Work is starting to be seen as the ‘icing on the cake’ and a ‘nice to have’ so there was incertainty over how ‘managers’ may perceive the benefits of releasing staff to attend a training day on accessing funds in this way. However after much debate we decided that we should go ahead with a promotional / training event. With many grants ending in March 2011 (in particular the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Fund) the Youth In Action funding could be used as a means to support some of the work that was previously covered through the YOF funding. In particular the Youth Initiative part of the programme could be helpful as you don’t even need to go abroad to apply for and gain the funding. The event will be targeted predominantly at practioners.

So – the event is going to go ahead and I will post more details as it gets organised. In the meantime it is worth reflecting on the support that many colleagues need in this period of uncertainty……where Change is the only certainty!

We’ve just had a great Senior Management awayday where we’ve been looking at how we move towards an Integrated Youth Support and Development Service. We’ve had the opportunity to reflect on our current structures (especially teams, meetings and work groups) to see how they support our vision and delivery. This is the start of a long journey as we are only just beginning to flesh out what the future of the service, it’s management structures and processes might be and we will be discussing these at all levels of the organisation.

What I thought was really interesting was how far we’ve come in our thinking about using online resources, social media etc to enhance and support our own structures as well as how we use them with young people. Since our conference with DK fromMediasnackerswe’ve started to think differently and to reflect on how we can use these different tools. (This is still with little knowledge but at least the heart is willing!)

For instance today we were talking much more about having online discussion opportunities rather than always having to meet face to face. I’m really interested in this at the moment as I’ve been participating on the UK Youth Onlinesite that Tim Davies has set it up as a space to share ideas and info for people interested in online work and using online technology with young people. (Badge courtesy of Mike Amos Simpson)

Tim has already started some useful discussions about different aspects of youth work on line and it’s interesting to discuss issues that many of us are grappling with or starting to (for instance drawing up policies on online / Social networking sites use etc.)